''Vagaceratops'' (meaning "wandering (''vagus'',

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

) horned face", in reference to its close relationship with ''

Kosmoceratops ''Kosmoceratops'' () is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur that lived in North America about 76–75.9 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period (geology), period. Specimens were discovered in Utah in the Kaiparowits Formation of the Gran ...

'' from

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

) is a

genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...

herbivorous A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically evolved to feed on plants, especially upon vascular tissues such as foliage, fruits or seeds, as the main component of its diet. These more broadly also encompass animals that eat n ...

ceratopsia Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Ancient Greek, Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivore, herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period (geology), Period, although ance ...

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

. It is a chasmosaurine

ceratopsian Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Asia and Europe, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Late Ju ...

which lived during the

Late Cretaceous The Late Cretaceous (100.5–66 Ma) is the more recent of two epochs into which the Cretaceous Period is divided in the geologic time scale. Rock strata from this epoch form the Upper Cretaceous Series. The Cretaceous is named after ''cre ...

period (late

Campanian The Campanian is the fifth of six ages of the Late Cretaceous epoch on the geologic timescale of the International Commission on Stratigraphy (ICS). In chronostratigraphy, it is the fifth of six stages in the Upper Cretaceous Series. Campa ...

) in what is now

Alberta Alberta is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province in Canada. It is a part of Western Canada and is one of the three Canadian Prairies, prairie provinces. Alberta is bordered by British Columbia to its west, Saskatchewan to its east, t ...

. Its fossils have been recovered from the Upper

Dinosaur Park Formation The Dinosaur Park Formation is the uppermost member of the Belly River Group (also known as the Judith River Group), a major geologic unit in southern Alberta. It was deposited during the Campanian stage of the Late Cretaceous, between about 7 ...

. It is sometimes included in the genus ''

Chasmosaurus ''Chasmosaurus'' ( ) is a genus of ceratopsid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous Period in North America. Its given name means 'opening lizard', referring to the large openings ( fenestrae) in its frill (Greek ''chasma'', meaning 'opening', 'hol ...

'' as ''Chasmosaurus irvinensis'' instead of being recognized as its own genus.

History

In 2010, paleontologist

Scott D. Sampson Scott Donald Sampson (born April 22, 1961) is a Canadian-American paleontologist and science communicator. Sampson is currently the Executive Director of California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, California. He was previously Vice Preside ...

and colleagues named ''Vagaceratops'' (from the

, whose sole species, ''C. irvinensis'', was formerly placed in ''

''), as well as ''Kosmoceratops'' and ''

Utahceratops ''Utahceratops'' is an extinct genus of ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 76.4~75.5 million years ago during the Late Cretaceous period (geology), period in what is now Utah. ''Utahceratops'' was a large-sized, robustly-built, ground- ...

'' (from the Kaiparowits Formation) in the same article. These genera, which were considered unusual compared to typical members of their group, were part of a spate of ceratopsian discoveries in the early 21st century, when many new taxa were named (a 2013 study stated that half of all valid genera were named since 2003, and the decade has been called a "ceratopsid renaissance").

Description

''Vagaceratops'' was a medium-sized ceratopsian, reaching in length and weighing . It is known primarily from three fossil skulls. Although the general structure was typical of ceratopsids (i.e. a parrot-like beak, large neck frill, and nasal horn) it has some peculiarities. The skulls are characterized by a reduced supraorbital horn, brow horns that are reduced to low bosses and a larger snout compared to related animals. ''Vagaceratops'' had smaller parietal fenestrae than most ceratopsids and had a strange configuration of epoccipitals (bones surrounding the frill). It possessed ten epoccipitals, eight of which were centrally flattened, curved forward and upward and fused together to form a jagged margin along the back of the frill. The frill was shorter and more square-shaped than other chasmosaurines, being wider than it was long.

Classification

''Vagaceratops'' was named by Scott D. Sampson, Mark A. Loewen, Andrew A. Farke, Eric M. Roberts, Catherine A. Forster, Joshua A. Smith, and Alan L. Titus in

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

, and the type species is ''Vagaceratops irvinensis''. This species was originally described as a species of ''

'' (''C. irvinensis'') in 2001. Its relationships remain debated. ''Vagaceratops'' has variously been allied with ''Kosmoceratops'' or with ''Chasmosaurus''. The cladogram below is the phylogeny of the Chasmosaurinae by Brown ''et al.'' (2015): Recently it has been suggested that Chasmosaurinae had a deep evolutionary split between a ''Chasmosaurus'' clade and a ''Pentaceratops'' clade''. Vagaceratops'' was hypothesized to be the last member of the ''Chasmosaurus'' clade from northern Laramidia'','' with the last representative of the clade being its close relative ''Kosmoceratops.''

References

External links

''Vagaceratops irvinensis''
at the Canadian Museum of Nature {{Taxonbar, from=Q388417 Chasmosaurinae Dinosaur genera Campanian dinosaurs Dinosaur Park Formation Taxa named by Scott D. Sampson Taxa named by Catherine Forster Fossil taxa described in 2001 Fossil taxa described in 2010 Dinosaurs of Canada

History

Description

Classification

See also

References

External links